Muse
by realfriends13
Summary: Jesse Tyler; local jock, beloved hunk, and newfound Photography student, which, he happens to be incredibly irritated about. Now he's faced with having to spend his senior year at Bullworth Academy stuck in the girliest class in school, and worst of all; partnered with the prissiest girl in school. How will he survive? And will he get laid? These questions plague him constantly.
1. Welcome Wagon

A/N - This is a repost of Chapter 1 of Bullworth Nights, which serves as an introduction to three fanfictions I am writing, this one being one of the fics introduced.

* * *

Jesse Tyler yawned as he caught another of Casey Harris' perfect spirals.

It was a warm August Friday, and classes would be starting up again on Monday. The two best friends had decided to head to the football field for an afternoon of preparing for the following week's tryouts for the football team, and Jesse was tired of it.

"Come on, dude," he called to Casey, holding the football with both hands, "we're as good as we're gonna get. I'm fuckin' bored."

Casey stared at him for a moment, before jogging over. "Come on dude, we gotta practice if I wanna make fullback again and you linebacker," he said.

Rolling his eyes, Jesse started walking towards the stairs by the football field, Casey walking with him. "Ain't nobody new who ever tries out for the football team, except that funny-lookin' kid Algie. We'll make it. 'Sides, I heard we got ourselves a new student here, we ought to make 'em feel welcome, don't ya think?"

Stopping, Casey crossed his arms and glared at Jesse. "I don't wanna waste time I could be playing ball beating some new loser."

"I mean we got ourselves a new girl student, Romeo," Jesse replied, rolling his eyes at Casey's obviously spiked interest.

"Why're you so excited?" Jesse challenged slyly, a grin spreading across his lips, "Shave your chest for this just in case?"

* * *

The two boys arrived at the Girls' Dorm, looking around.

"I don't see any new girls around here," Casey said, disappointed, "just the same supplies from last year."

"Maybe she ain't here yet," Jesse suggested, gray eyes scanning for any sign of a new girl, "let's ask Christy if she knows anything."

They made their way over to Christy, who was chattering excitedly to Angie Ng. Both of them had duffel bags by their feet, probably clothes and other belongings they still had not unpacked, but paid no mind to them. Their conversation ceased almost instantly when the boys arrived.

"Hi guys," Christy greeted enthusiastically, edging a little closer to them and sticking her chest out just a bit. Jesse admired the view as Angie mumbled a quiet and sweet 'hi' to them, particularly Jesse, obviously still shy around him after the seven minutes in Heaven stunt he had pulled the previous year.

"Hey," Casey replied, giving them both an irresistible lopsided grin, "we were just wondering if either of you knew about some new girl coming?"

Christy's eyes brightened, happy to be of some use to the boys. "I do! Apparently she's not really new. She was here two years ago for like, a semester. I hear she's coming back from New York."

"A city girl," Jesse said, nodding approvingly to Casey. "You happen to catch her name, darlin'?"

"Well, I was totally in the office when Ms. Danvers and Dr. Crabblesnitch were talking about her, because I wanted to change my dorm mate since they paired me up with that _nerd_ girl, and I was like, definitely not going to spend an entire year rooming with Little Miss cold sores and not my BFF Angie, y'know? I mean all she does is spend her time reading boring science books and talking about, like, dragons and stuff—"

"Yeah, Christy," Casey nodded, bored, "but this new chick?"

Christy's smile faltered, clearly disappointed to have to change the subject away from herself. "Oh. Yeah. So, she's coming from like, New York, and I think she was that girl that used to be on cheerleading in freshman year, but I don't remember her name. Wait, that might be her..."

The two boys turned to face in the direction that Christy was looking, and immediately saw a rather short blonde girl walking behind Ms. Danvers, who looked as strict and taut as always. She dragged a total of three overly-stuffed duffel bags, all of them looking like they were about to fall apart.

Christy had mentioned that she wasn't exactly new, but Jesse didn't recognize her very much. She _did_ look a little bit like a cheerleader he'd known his sophomore year, but hell if he remembered what all the girls he'd ever flirted with in his life looked like.

"This," Ms. Danvers said, her voice professional, "is the Girls' Dorm. You will reside here for the duration of the school year. I'd like you to note, Miss Monroe, that absolutely no male students are allowed in the dorm," she said, eyeing Casey and Jesse, "and any violation of this rule will result in heavy punishment. There will be absolutely no hanky-panky in this school."

Jesse and Casey burst into a fit of giggles at that, earning a furious look from Ms. Danvers, and an amused look from the new-slash-returning girl, Alexis. Christy rolled her eyes, exchanging an unimpressed look with Angie.

"Is there something funny about Dr. Crabblesnitch's rules, Mr. Tyler?" Ms. Danvers demanded, arching a thin eyebrow in Jesse's direction.

He held his hands up as if in surrender, shaking his head and suppressing his laughter. "Not at all, Miss, Ralph's rules are as good as any."

Ms. Danvers pursed her lips so tightly at that, it looked as if she'd sucked on an especially sour lime.

"Aw, c'mon, Ms. Danvers, you know I'm just pullin' your leg," Jesse purred, giving Ms. Danvers an innocent smile and nodding to Casey, "anyway, me and Harris here were just thinkin' we'd up and help little Miss Monroe here take her things up to her new dormitory, if that's peachy keen with you, ma'am."

"Male students are not allowed in the Girls' Dorm, Mr. Tyler," Ms. Danvers replied coldly, "you are aware of that, if you'll remember back to last term."

"But Miss, she's got all those heavy bags and, well, we don't have anything else to do," Casey offered, stepping up next to Jesse and mirroring his innocent gaze.

"We just thought you'd want to get back to Dr. Crabblesnitch as soon as possible," Jesse added.

Ms. Danvers stopped for a moment, considering this. She studied Alexis for a moment, who stared back at her blankly. "Well... I suppose it'll be alright, just for today. But you are to leave at once as soon as you have delivered her items! I will be checking with Mrs. Peabody to assure that you followed my directions," she threatened, as she turned to Alexis.

"This folder contains your class schedule, the code of conduct, sport tryout dates, a list of clubs, and of course your locker information, as well as a key to your dorm room. You have been assigned room... 206."

She promptly handed the folder to Alexis, and with a nod to both boys, scurried away on her high heels, almost breaking out in a run after she was a couple meters away from the students, clearly desperate to return to the headmaster.

"She walks like she's got a dump she don't wanna let out quite just yet," Jesse commented, launching himself and Casey into another fit of laughter.

They walked to Alexis, each of the boys taking two bags into their strong hands.

"So, sweetheart, today's your first day, huh?" Jesse asked as the three walked up the stairs to the Girls' Dorm entrance. He held the door open for her and then walked in after her, letting it shut on Casey.

Casey burst through the door a moment later, and the two began a playful shoving match. Alexis looked on, amused.

"Yeah, kind of. I went here in my freshman year but…" Alexis trailed off, studying the very pink dorm, "I moved midyear."

Casey grinned, pushing Jesse back and rushing so that he could walk with Alexis. "Well, on behalf of the student body, we're glad that you're back."

Jesse rolled his eyes, walking behind the two and trying to see at what moment he could slip in and take Casey's spot as they began walking up the stairs.

Alexis laughed, taken by Casey's lame flirting. "That's good."

Jesse watched as her green eyes studied Casey's body, a little jealous. Casey always stepped in to get the girls. He needed to take a day where he'd go girl hunting by himself, and leave Casey to do something dumb like clean out the clubhouse. Yeah. It was a great idea.

"This is your room, darlin'," Jesse interrupted, pushing past Casey and giving Alexis a cheesy grin as he pushed the door open. He glanced inside, and then turned his gaze to focus on the slim, black-haired girl inside, unpacking from a fancy duffel bag, one that looked just like Alexis'. Piper Harrington.

Casey looked in to, and the two best friends exchanged a grin. "Hey, Pipes," Casey greeted, smirking at Piper. "We brought you your new dorm mate."

Piper looked up at the two, cool blue eyes scanning over them boredly. She focused on Alexis for a moment, her expression as blank and bored as ever.

"I take it these two have been drooling over you since the moment you got here?" she asked, making Jesse smile. He'd always loved that slight British accent she spoke with. He loved girls.

Alexis laughed, smiling at the two boys. "They've just pretty welcoming."

"Yeah, it's like that for the first couple days, then they follow you around like dogs," Piper chuckled, walking over to Alexis and shaking her hand. "Piper Harrington."

"Alexis Monroe," Alexis replied, her expression turning to one of slight discomfort. "Um, you guys can leave my shit on the bed, it's cool," she added, beaming at Casey and Jesse.

The two boys did so, and then made their way over to the girls.

"Our pleasure, sweetheart," Jesse said, winking at her.

"Yeah. Don't sweat it," Casey added, his eyes running down her body greedily.

She gave them both kisses on the cheeks, giving them a little finger-wave as they made their way out of the door, both of them giving her stupidly admiring looks as they did so. They nearly tripped as they both tried to stuff themselves through the doorway at the same time, and finally fell out into the hallway as Piper shut the door.

"Did you see the ass on that chick?!" Casey laughed as the two ran down the stairs, ignoring the bewildered looks on the girls they passed.

"Damn," Jesse agreed, pretending to become lightheaded at the mere memory, "just another reason to love girls. She's hot as hell."

Casey agreed, and the two high-fived as they spilled out of the Girls' Dorm and began heading back to the gym. "Think she liked me a bit? She kissed my cheek and everything, it was cool."

Jesse rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "She kissed my cheek too, I think she likes me."

Casey stopped, staring at Jesse as he continued walking a few paces ahead of him. Jesse stopped, turning to look at Casey.

"I'll play you for her," Casey said, "one-on-one."

Jesse laughed, crossing his arms. "You're on, Harris."

"Bring it, Tyler."


	2. Art is for Girls

A/N - This is a repost of Chapter 4 of Bullworth Nights, which serves as an introduction to three fanfictions I am writing, this one being one of the fics introduced.

* * *

Jesse Tyler rolled his eyes as he and his best friend, Casey Harris, exited the auditorium after the two hour long 'welcome back' assembly that Crabblesnitch insisted on inflicting on the students year after year.

The assembly had been eternal—and boring as all hell—and his ass hurt from sitting so long on those hard 'cushioned' seats.

That, and he and Casey had shown up late, so they ended up sitting straight up in the middle of the _nerds_. Really, he could think of tons of better ways to spend a Saturday morning that _didn't_ include Beatrice Trudeau drooling over him whilst talking about her cold sores. That chick was gross.

"That sucked," Casey said as the two walked the short walk to the cafeteria. He grabbed an apple as they sat down at their usual table, the rightmost one where the Jocks always sat.

Nodding, Jesse took the apple from Casey and took out a big bite. "It always sucks," he replied, rolling the fruit back to his best friend, "and it's always the same thing. Welcome to Bullworth. These are the rules. Clean your fuckin' nose."

"Whatever," Casey replied, pulling out a crumpled sheet of paper from his letterman jacket pocket, "at least he finally gave us our schedules."

He smoothed it out on the table in front of him, dark blue eyes scanning down the list rapidly and excitedly. When he reached the end, his face fell.

"What the hell?! I definitely signed up for art class, why the hell does it say _home economics_ on here?!"

Jesse gave him an incredulous stare, shocked.

"You signed up for _art_ class? What are you, a girl?"

"Taking art class doesn't automatically make someone a girl, you sexist pig," Mandy Wiles hissed, taking a seat next to Casey as the lunch room slowly filled up with students. She crossed her legs, setting her chin onto her palm as she glared at Jesse, raising a single expertly-threaded eyebrow.

Jesse turned his gaze to her, admiring her cheerleading-toned body and tight fitting navy blue cheer uniform. Man, was she gorgeous. He'd _definitely_ tap her, if she wasn't such an absolute fucking bitch.

And if she wasn't the girlfriend of his boss?

"Well, princess, we can talk _all about_ how misogynistic I am later," Jesse snorted, rolling his eyes. He raised an eyebrow to Ted, who took a seat beside him, eating an apple as he looked around the cafeteria, seemingly lost and completely oblivious as to what was happening.

"Could you screw her so that she'd chill out a bit?" Jesse asked, his voice bored.

Ted grinned at him, looking at Mandy and raising both eyebrows. "I would, but _she_ wants to wait."

Letting out an irritated sigh, Mandy stood and glared at the three boys. "Whatever."

She stormed off in the direction of the lunch line, shoving past Damon and Juri, who gave each other confused looks. Jesse watched her scream at Beatrice before disappearing into the kitchen, leaving Beatrice looking conflicted and terrified. Rolling his eyes, Jesse turned back to Casey.

"That bitch is two fuckin' sandwiches short of a whole damn picnic. Whatever. Why'd you want to take _art_ class?" he asked again.

Casey gave him an amused smile, as if he were looking at the stupidest small child he'd ever met. "Because Ms. Philips teaches it," he replied simply, leaning back and crossing his arms as if he'd just won a competition.

Jesse broke his gaze from the arm wrestling match that Juri and Damon had started, instead staring at Casey.

"You really think she'd go for _you_?"

"Why not?" Casey countered, lifting his jersey enough to show off an impressive six-pack, "Obviously, I have a lot to offer."

Jesse scoffed, crossing his arms. "She'll snap out of it real quick once she sees how tiny your dick is, 'roid-ass."

Casey laughed, shaking his head. "You're just jealous 'cause I smarted you." He laughed a little, shaking his head so that his blonde locks swung around his face.

"But now it won't even work, 'cause fuckin' Crabblesnitch changed it!"

He continued glaring down at his schedule as Jesse pulled out his own schedule, doing his best to flatten it out so that it was readable.

"Well, _I_ don't sign up for no _pussy shit_ , and instead of fuckin' _art_ , I'm gonna take—…. _Photography?!_ "

"You were ripping on me for taking art when you were gonna take _photography_?!" Casey demanded, snatching Jesse's schedule away from him, "That's like, even girlier than art, man!"

He started laughing, gripping the edge of the wooden lunch table for support so that he didn't fall backwards off his seat.

"Gimme that!" Jesse roared, taking the sheet of paper back and staring at it in disbelief. He'd gotten placed into _photography_ class?! What the _hell_?! This was _definitely_ Crabblesnitch's way of getting back at him for that stupid pool prank last year. So they had to empty the entire thing the night before that big stupid swim meet. So what? It wasn't like there was a bulletin board for this type of shit.

"I didn't sign up to take no damn photography class!" He growled at Casey, who was still in the middle of a laughing fit.

"Photography?"

Jesse looked up into the expectant face of Mandy. She'd come back with a tray holding nothing else besides a slightly shriveled, old apple, and stared at Jesse with a slightly worried look.

"That's right, Princess," he replied, annoyed.

She ignored the nickname, the worried look on her face still present. "W-When?"

"Wednesdays afternoon. What's the matter? You're sweatin' like a pregnant nun in church. Scared I'm gonna ruin your perfect little emotional class?"

Mandy straightened, icing him with an irritated glare. "I don't care _what_ class you're in, Tyler. You'll probably get kicked out before the week even ends, redneck. Come on, Ted, we gotta get ready for your campaign."

With that, she grabbed Ted by the arm and dragged him away, and Damon and Juri quickly got up to follow after them.

"Damn, dude," Casey said, stuffing his face with an apple from the nearby basket, "you're in for hell."

"I dunno," Jesse replied, smirking smugly after Mandy and the other guys, "this may be kinda fun."


	3. Jesse Tyler: Local Heartthrob & Ass Pain

Photography class was a flake, Jesse had decided that much the minute he'd walked into the classroom and confirmed his initial suspicion of it being a popular glass among the lady students at Bullworth.

Well, it wasn't like that was a _downside_ exactly.

He swaggered in, winking at Pinky Gauthier who happened to be sitting by the door. She smiled back at him, giving him a little four-fingered wave.

Jesse continued his confident stride across the classroom, winking and offering his most irresistible smiles to the girls he saw, even Eunice, who looked as if she were going to faint when he winked at her. He snickered to himself, relishing in the attention.

 _Man_ , he _loved_ girls.

"I see our local heartthrob has arrived," Ms. Philips, the art and photography teacher, remarked from the front of the classroom. Jesse turned to her, flashing her a charming smile.

"Afternoon, Deirdre," he said, adoring the little grin she returned to him upon hearing him call her by her first name, "class is goin' real nice, I reckon?"

Ms. Philips glanced down, laughing quietly, before looking back up at him. "It will be, as soon as all of my students are in their seats."

He looked around, pretending to look for the scoundrel who dared to disobey Ms. Philips' seating instruction. "Who? Who, Ms. Philips? Don't worry, I'll beat 'em to a pulp!"

"Ms. Philips?"

Jesse's attention was taken by the thin, tanned, outstretched arm connected to a certain brunette head cheerleader. Mandy Wiles was seated at the front of the classroom, a fancy Nikon film camera hanging around her petite neck. She looked aggravated, and she just so happened to be looking straight at Jesse.

"Yes, Mandy?" Ms. Philips inquired patiently.

"Well," Mandy said, still scowling at Jesse, "I really feel like we're losing time because _certain students_ are trying to act cute, but are really just wasting time. Do you think we could move on?"

Jesse rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and looking at Ms. Philips melodramatically, expecting her to chide Mandy and tell her to lighten up a bit.

To Jesse's astonishment, Ms. Philips did not. "I agree, Mandy. Mr. Tyler, would you please take a seat next to your partner?" She said, nodding to the empty stool next to Mandy.

Looking over at Ms. Philips in disbelief, Jesse chortled insincerely, trying to play this whole thing off as a joke. "Partner? You're pullin' my leg, aren't ya, Ms. P? Only partner I ever use is durin' square dancin', and I don't even do that on account that I ain't even in Texas no more."

Ms. Philips merely looked at Jesse innocently, shaking her head. "Is there a problem Mr. Tyler?" She asked, though her tone implied that there had better _not_ be a problem. Jesse could tell that much—he heard it all too often from that twerp of a headmaster Crabblesnitch when he was dishing out Jesse's detention orders. Moaning, Jesse shook his head.

"No, ma'am."

He dragged his feet over to the stool and sat down, making a point of scooting as far away from Mandy as possible, even if doing so brought him closer to that smelly kid Fatty Johnson. Mandy paid no mind to him, instead she had an immense, satisfied, arrogant smirk on her face as if she'd just outsmarted him.

"Alright, class," Ms. Philips said, easily sliding into her teaching manner, "welcome to Photography 1. For today we'll just be covering the basics, I'll teach you all how to use your film cameras. We'll be spending tomorrow discussing artistic tools. Next week, you'll be shooting, and the week after that we'll be developing. Now, let's get into aperture…"

Blanking out as Ms. Philips began chattering about apertures, Jesse snuck a glimpse at Mandy.

Oh _lord baby Jesus_ , was she actually taking _notes_?

"Since when do you care about school?" Jesse whispered to her, leaning in extra close in an attempt to make her uncomfortable.

She frowned at him, startled by his sudden break of the silence between them. "I care about _this_ class," she shot back, irritated, "now leave me alone so I can focus. _Some_ of us actually have goals for our futures that _don't_ include riding around like some wannabe cowboy."

Jesse pretended he'd been hit by a bullet when she made her comment, and placed a hand on her forearm, pleased at the gentleness of her skin. "You've wounded me, darlin'; I ain't no _wannabe_ cowboy, I'm a full-fledged cowboy and football star."

Rolling her eyes, Mandy shook his hand off and scooted a bit further from him. "Just shut up, and leave me alone."

How did she expect him to leave her alone _now_? Jesse chuckled to himself, enjoying himself. He loved teasing Mandy, she got so pissed at him so speedily.

He pulled out a piece of lined paper and a pencil that he'd sharpened so it'd be double sided, and wrote out a sloppy note to her.

 _do u lik me? chek yes or no_

⬜ _yes_

⬜ _no_

Sliding the note and the pencil to her, he watched as she gave him an exasperated glare from the corner of her eye and scrawled out a note in her clean, curly handwriting.

 _do u lik me? chek yes or no_

⬜ _yes_

⬜ _no_

 _You spelled 'like' and 'check' wrong._ _Moron._

Frowning at the reply, Jesse leaned in close to her once again. "That's a little bit cold, don't you think? I was just wonderin' if I had a shot with such a pretty little sweetheart, is all," he explained, the sarcasm in his voice apparent.

Mandy whipped around to face him, her ponytail flying out behind her like a whip. "Leave. Me. Alone." She hissed at him through perfectly straight, white teeth.

He backed off, a bit bothered by the sudden aggressive tone she'd acquired. What the hell? It wasn't like she didn't _know_ she was a bitch.

"Sorry I hurt your feelin's, _princess_ ," he barked, angry, "didn't realize it was your time of the month."

"Would you just SHUT UP?!" Mandy shrieked suddenly, shooting upwards as she glared at him.

Jesse stared back, paling just a little, lowering one eyebrow as he gaped at her.

"Is there a problem, Ms. Wiles?"

Mandy looked up to Ms. Philips, realizing that the entire class had heard her freak out at this stupid redneck hillbilly. She took a deep breath and felt herself blush just a little before sitting down on her stool.

"No, miss. Tyler's just being a pain."

Ms. Philips nodded knowingly before spearing Jesse with an annoyed look. "Jesse, I'd appreciate it if you allowed both me _and_ your classmates to proceed with a smooth-sailing class."

"Sure thing, darlin',"

He grinned at the other students as laughter scattered among the classroom, some unsure chuckles at Jesse's boldness with Ms. Philips, others from fear upon receiving a glare from Mandy.

"Real smooth there, sweetheart," Jesse whispered to Mandy, giving her a pleased smirk. It was his revenge for her acting smug at the beginning of class.

" _You_ are _such_ a _pain_." Mandy hissed, gathering her things and moving to sit next to Fatty Johnson.

Laughing to himself, Jesse took her stool and used it as a footrest.

Jesse 1, Mandy 0.


	4. May I Call You Ralph?

"Mr. Tyler? Dr. Crabblesnitch will see you now,"

Jesse flashed a charming, winning smile to Miss Danvers, who in turn rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated grunt as she pulled open the enormous wooden doors to the headmaster's office. Dr. Crabblesnitch sat in his office chair, looking mean and solemn, but Jesse meant business today. He wasn't frightened.

Well, maybe just a little, but he had extra boxers in his locker. You can never be too careful, momma always said, god rest her soul.

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his navy blue-and-gold basketball shorts, Jesse swaggered into the headmaster's office as if he owned the place. Crabblesnitch, unimpressed, pinched the bridge of his nose as he instructed Jesse to sit down.

"To what is it that I owe this pleasure, Mr. Tyler?"

"Well, Ralph—may I call you Ralph?" Jesse began, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees, holding his intertwined fingers out in front of him. He disregarded Crabblesnitch's obviously frustrated stare and dismissive wave of his hand, taking it as approval for referring to the headmaster as his equal.

"I have a big issue. One that can only be fixed by a man by the likes of you, my friend," he announced, his voice big and business-like.

Sighing, Crabblesnitch propped forward a bit, knowing what this was most likely due to.

Jesse took a deep breath, knowing that this was most likely gonna roll over in his favor. "The fact remains, Ralph, buddy, pal… Photography is no place for a 'redneck-country-Brad-Paisley wanna-be' like me, sir, in the words of sweet, young, Mandy Wiles. Though I do hand it to her, that was some real nice rhymin'," he added thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.

The headmaster nodded, having guessed correctly about what Jesse would be complaining about today. He'd taken a chance on placing the boy in the class, thinking that maybe it'd soften him down and would help round him into a more self-controlled student. In reality, he'd expected Jesse in his office much sooner, demanding to be removed from the class.

"Mr. Tyler," Crabblesnitch began, standing and examining the bust of a past headmaster he had on his bookshelf, "before we go negotiating anything, have you been trying to do well in this class? Say, try to get along with Miss Wiles?"

Jesse scoffed, rolling his eyes. _Boy_ had he been tryin' to get along with 'Miss Wiles'.

"There's two theories to arguin' with women, mister, and not one of 'em works. Sir, fact is, I've been workin' harder than a one-legged man in an ass kickin' contest, and that girl ain't givin' me no rope to pull on."

"Pardon my French," Jesse added quickly upon being iced by the disapproving glare Crabblesnitch shot him.

Crabblesnitch sighed, rubbing his temples gently with his right hand. He was getting too old for this job, and these foolish complaints from students. "Mr. Tyler, I strongly suggest you try and continue on with this class. You might learn a thing or two about yourself before you graduate and head off into the world…"

And join up some rodeo or cattle-rounding job?

Jesse blinked, not understanding the headmaster. Learn something about himself? Please. There wasn't any depth to him except football, horse riding, and girl-kissing. Crabblesnitch could be so _bothersome_ when he wanted to be.

"The fact is sir, you're the one fuckin' the chicken here and I'm just holdin' its wings," he noticed the headmaster's stern, yet confused expression, before quickly clarifying that he simply had no control over the matter.

Still, Crabblesnitch shook his head. "I truly believe this is the best course for you, Mr. Tyler. Please shut the door on your way out," he countered, with a wave of his hand.

* * *

"I don't know man, but there is _no way_ I'm stayin' in that class."

Jesse and Casey walked up the stairs leading away from the football field, tired and sore after football practice. Burton was always bitterly grueling and harsh with football practice—the guys on the team thought it was some sort of retaliation over not ever getting drafted—and some clown had taken it upon himself to shoot the players with a slingshot while they were running suicides. Nobody respected the noble art of football these days. It was probably one of those stupid fucking preps. Jesse'd kill them when he got the chance.

Casey nodded, understanding his best friend's predicament. "Definitely man, I'm surprised you even stayed as long as you have. Mandy sounds like she's on the rag whenever she's around you."

He'd just learned about Jesse's photography class dilemma, which had only increased exponentially since the first day of class.

"She's always callin' me dumb whenever I ask anythin' bout that damn camera! Ain't my fault none of that shit makes sense," Jesse whined, pulling his jersey off and rubbing at his left shoulder, which was throbbing in pain from where he'd gotten hit with the slingshot, "bitch is colder than a witch's tit."

"She really hates you," Casey agreed, and the two of them momentarily paused their conversation to wink and catcall Christy Martin and Pinky Gauthier, who were walking out of the gym in their cheerleading gear. Both girls giggled and blew kisses, eyeing Jesse's impressive six pack and Casey's sweaty blond hair that had been pushed back from his forehead.

As soon as the girls were out of sight, they kept talking as they walked down the steps to the boy's locker room. "I don't know what I done to 'er—all I know is she can't stand the sight of me."

Casey shrugged, pulling his jersey up over his head and off his well-sculpted chest. "Maybe she's got a thing against Texas. City girls have that type of thing about them, y'know?"

Jesse shook his head, stepping out of his smelly, dirty football pants before ducking into one of the showers and throwing off his boxers. He turned on the shower, savoring as the warm water hit his chest, and began cleaning the sweat and dirt off himself.

"Nah man, everybody say Texas' country as hell but we got Dallas and San Antonio and Houston. Hell, we got cities like the big ones in New York."

"Man," Casey disputed, and Jesse heard the shower curtain beside him scrape as Casey moved it aside, "you talk about riding horses and doing all sorts of country shit all the time."

"'Course I do," Jesse replied, grinning, "Shit, I grew up in Bandera. Ain't no place in Texas as Texas as Bandera. But still, man, don't mess with Texas!"

Casey laughed, his voice echoing through the locker room as Jesse stepped out of his shower, wrapping a towel around his exposed waist. His vision roamed on over to the left, where he saw none other than little ole' Beatrice Trudeau standing beet red after having seen him, holding an anatomy book to her chest as if protecting her life. Devious, Jesse winked at her, chuckling to himself as she darted off, embarrassed.

"What are you gonna do about Mandy?" Casey questioned, stepping out and drying himself off while Jesse was dressing himself. As he did, the rest of the team members slowly began crowding the locker room, chatter about football and girls and cars filling the room.

"Ain't it simple?" Jesse asked, over the chatter, "I'm just gonna plow on through, lil' miss priss be damned."

He turned to his team mates, grinning wildly. "After all, guys, go big or go home!" he shouted, laughing at the cheers and whoops they responded with.

Well, they do say that the Texan folk go bigger on everything!


	5. Happy Birthday to You!

The football field seemed to vibrate with the heartbeat of the nameless tune that was currently blasting out of the six-foot tall speakers.

October 31st, 2006—Halloween night, and also, coincidentally, Jesse Tyler's 18th birthday.

He'd just been grinding with one of the girls from Bullworth High when Jesse decided he wanted a drink, or ten. It _was_ his birthday, after all.

The football field had been decked out specifically for this event—the football team _never_ hesitated to go all out for the celebration of one of their own's birthdays.

Speakers taller than even Juri towered over the crowd, which was made up of the entire football team, of course, the cheerleaders, a couple kids from the lower grades, and a whole lot of kids from the public school. Bullworth had a serious lack of ladies, so the public school did a real nice job of providing the fun when needed. Even a couple nerds wandered around the party—after all, they'd need something funny to do to entertain everyone. Beating up a couple losers was good enough.

He looked at the girl pressing herself against him, studying her for a moment. Her dull blonde hair the color of a used, old broom looked like it needed some serious washing, and in his personal opinion, a run would do her a world of good. That Playboy playmate costume she was wearing looked about three sizes too small on her, and just begging to be put out of its misery as it spilled her body out of the leg and arm holes.

Alright, maybe the girls at the academy were scarce, but at least they weren't sub-par like _Blondie_ over here.

"I'm gonna go and get myself a drink, darlin'," Jesse purred into her ear, minding his matters. Sure, she was about as appealing as week old road kill, but he wasn't about to be the one to let her know.

"I'll be here, baby," Blondie replied, giving him a smirk and a quick kiss on the cheek before melting into the crowd, most likely in search of another boy to grind on.

Boy, was he glad he didn't go to Bullworth High.

He swaggered his way over to the snack table, which was decorated in a rainbow of foods. An assortment of chips, candies, and even his favorite beer—Lone Star. Jesse plucked a beer can off the table and turned to face the field, where the majority of the party was centered.

The mixture of Bullworth Academy kids and Bullworth High kids had been a real nice turnout. Ted and Casey had taken charge of the guest list, and they'd been good enough pals to make sure to invite mainly ladies from the public school to assure that Jesse could have his pick of who his birthday hook-up would be. They'd even gone all out with the liquor—the whole football team would probably still be drunk by next week, and it was only Tuesday.

Within moments, Jesse was crowded by his usual posse—Ted, Casey, and of course, Mandy on Ted's arm.

"You _looooovin'_ your party, dude?" Ted slurred, so painfully, obviously drunk. He set one hand on the snack table to steady himself, knocking over a couple cans and party cups, his other arm around Mandy's shoulder. He made no effort to hide the fact that he was trying to grope her breasts, making her clearly uncomfortable. She kept trying to shrug his arm off of her, but she wasn't saying anything about it.

Jesse nodded, popping open his beer can with his teeth, and taking a long gulp. "You can bet your hat. Thanks, y'all, I really appreciate this," he said, grinning at Ted.

"Hope you like that beer, man," Casey added, his own arm curled around some ugly chick from the high school, "we had to drive all the way to Blue Skies to find it, and we had to pay some construction worker to get it for us."

He'd pushed his devil mask off of his face, and was giving Jesse a smug look, obviously proud of having 'scored' tonight. Hell, Jesse thought that even _Casey_ had to be pretty drunk to think he was gonna get any sort of points from a chick like that. He'd be getting a kick outta this for months.

He chuckled, just as Christy Martin swung by and draped her arms around Jesse's neck, pushing past Ted and Casey and giving Jesse a long, long kiss.

"Meet me by the girl's locker room at eleven for part two of your gift, kay?" she purred, icing him with a sweet, girlish smile and paying no mind to Ted, Casey, or Mandy.

Jesse grinned back at her, setting his hands on her narrow hips and feeling her up. She was wearing some stupid little mouse costume, and he absolutely _adored_ it on her. Maybe it was just the alcohol racing 'round in his system, but she looked ten times hotter than usual.

"You got it, babe," he mumbled, winking at her and circling his hands around to her backside before giving her another quick kiss. Earlier, Christy had been in charge of keeping him… _busy_ while the guys set up for the party. Part one of his gift had been _real_ nice, and even in the comfort of his own dorm room. He really couldn't _wait_ to see what part two was. Maybe he'd finally get laid.

A boy can only dream, right?

Christy parted from him and strut off to join the party to grind on some loser from the public school, but Jesse found he didn't really give a shit. He had Texas beer, and would be getting some sort of sexual favor in about twenty minutes. He just about had it made right now.

"I can't _believe_ you take advantage of her like that," Mandy snorted, finally managing to push Ted's arm off her and crossing her arms like she was all disappointed and such.

Priss.

Jesse took a long sip from his beer, eyes scanning up and down Mandy's body. She wasn't wearing some sort of sexy little costume like Christy, but instead sported a more sensible bee costume, topped with a crown on her head.

Oh man, she was a _'Queen Bee'_.

Man, she sure must've racked her brain cookin' up that one!

"Sweetheart, I ain't takin' advantage of nothin'. That girl's fixin' t' spend some time with me, and I'm jus' givin' 'er what she wants. Right, y'all?"

Casey had been nipping and kissing at Butterface's neck, and broke apart just as Jesse spoke up. He looked real dazed and confused, like he wasn't sure where the hell he was, but offered a hearty 'yeah man', just in case. Ted, still irritated at having been rejected by Mandy, agreed as well.

"Ugh, whatever," Mandy sneered, holding up her hand to Jesse's face like she was better than him, "I'm gonna go find the _sodas_."

The three of them watched her as she strut off in the direction of the clubhouse, her nose pointed into the air and ignoring everyone she walked past, the football field lights reflecting delicately off of her costume.

"Take a walk," Casey commanded his date, giving her a slight nudge towards the field. She shrugged, uninterested, and disappeared into the crowd of teens dancing and grinding on the field.

"Mandy's so tight, she squeaks when she walks," Jesse commented, laughing and clinking his beer with Casey's.

Ted nodded, sticking the hand that wasn't holding him up into his letterman jacket and looking off into the crowd. "I'm just waiting for her to hold out, then I'll find mysel' a new girl. Maybe one of the public school ones, or that new chick, Monroe."

Casey shook his head, a slightly disappointed look gracing his features, glancing over at Jesse. "We tried with that one, she's all about the grease monkeys. I don't think I've seen her away from that Romano kid since she got here."

"Damn," Ted sighed, "whatever, I'll just pick from the public school."

Jesse eyed him for a moment, unsure of what to say. Ted was a real jerk to Mandy. Sure, maybe _he_ was a real jerk to Mandy, too, but it wasn't like he was Mandy's _boyfriend_. He was _forced_ to deal with her in photography—Ted just dealt with her by choice. Just sticking around to do her wasn't a good excuse either.

His thoughts were interrupted by the unmistakably annoying voice of Ivan Alexander, some loser eighth grader who swore they were friends. "Hey, Jesse? Uh, sir?"

Jesse took in a deep breath, a bit irritated. This kid really thought it was a good idea to distract him right in the middle of his _eighteenth_ birthday party?

He turned to face the dork, crossing his arms and looking like the big, intimidating linebacker he was.

"Listen, son, I got a hook-up in 15 minutes, and if I'm late to that 'cause of you, I swear I'll—"

Ivan interrupted him, waving his hands a little and shaking his head. Jesse might've smacked him, had he not delivered the news he was just about to.

"Some of those dropout kids crashed the party, and I saw them go into the clubhouse. I just, uh, thought you should know…"

Jesse immediately snapped around to look at Casey, exchanging a worried look with him.

" _Mandy's_ in there," he said automatically, glancing over at Ted, who was just opening a can of bear, uninterested. Jesse raised his eyebrows at him, waiting for Ted to give the command that they ambush the clubhouse and save Mandy right away. Instead, he caught the eye of a cheerleader from the public school, and strolled off in her direction.

Ass.

" _Dismissed_ , Alexander," Jesse scolded, pushing his hair back and leaving his can of beer on the snack table. He turned to Casey, nodding over to the clubhouse. "Come on, we're goin'."

Casey eyed Jesse for a moment, instantly recognizing the fury on his face. He'd seen this face only a couple of times before, and he knew instantly that this couldn't end well.

* * *

They crashed into the clubhouse less than a minute later.

"Come on baby, just have a drink, loosen u—What the hell?!"

Mandy stood by the bed in the clubhouse, her face calm and collected, but Jesse could see the fear in her eyes even from where he stood. Two of those dropout kids—one with a goatee, the other with some dirty, white wifebeater—had cornered her. He could smell a mixture of weed and something strong—vodka, maybe—coming off of them.

"It's just two schoolboys," the taller one said, rolling his eyes and turning back to Mandy.

"Get outta here!" Casey commanded, stepping up to the dropout, puffing up his chest to look bigger. "This is _our_ turf."

"Why?" Wifebeater asked, inching closer to Casey, "You gonna _make_ us?"

" _Yeah_ , we're gonna make you!" Jesse roared, his hands balling up into fists. Did they really think they could just barge in and bother Mandy on _Jock_ turf?

Wifebeater laughed, turning to face Jesse. "Look at this, Gurney," he called, grinning wildly, "this kid's gonna beat us up. What's the matter, pretty boy? We mess with your girl?"

He backtracked so that he was standing right by Mandy, and spanked her right on the rear end.

And that's when everything went black for Jesse.

* * *

What did he do? What did he do? He didn't know what he'd done but his knuckles were soaked in blood. The clubhouse. He was in the clubhouse sitting on the bed and it was dark and there was sports equipment everywhere. A couple condom containers. There was his spare jersey over there on the floor, and maybe Bo's. Oh god what had happened?

Jesse's head snapped up at the sound of the clubhouse door slamming after the two dropout kids who'd just barely scrambled out moments before. Okay, so he didn't kill anyone. But still his knuckles were all bloody and… _man_ , they hurt. They hurt a real lot. Maybe it was his blood.

He started rocking back and forth on the mattress. Rocking was good. Rocking calmed him down. Just like when momma used to rock him and sing him to sleep. Just had to rock… rock… rock… faster, now… imagine taking a ride on his horse, Catolo, around the farm…

"Jess. Jess, look at me."

"They _touched her—_ "

"No, Jess, just look at me."

Jesse obeyed, looking up at Casey and studying him. He looked real tired, and he had pretty dark circles under his blue eyes, but he still looked pretty smart right now. Maybe he was right, maybe Jesse should focus on Casey, at least for a little bit. He looked like he knew what he was doing right about now.

Casey took both of Jesse's hands in his own, pressing them together. "Alright, Jess, let's pray." he mumbled, bowing his head. "Our father, who art in Heaven—come on, Jess, say it with me."

Jesse nodded frantically, squeezing his eyes shut and bowing his head to the Lord. "O-Our father… wh-who art in Heaven…"

He snuck a glance up at Mandy, who was standing off by the door limply, staring at Jesse like he'd just up and grown three heads. "H-Hallowed be thy name…"

Casey noted Jesse was trailing off, instantly detecting that he was distracted. Jesse was usually real good about sticking to prayer, but Casey knew that if there was something distracting, Jesse wouldn't be able to focus. He looked over at Mandy and nodded towards the door.

"He'd be better if you…"

"Yeah," Mandy replied, ducking out the door, her eyes never leaving Jesse. Her face was coated in a layer of a mixture of what was sure to be horror and confusion.

Jesse sighed and bowed his head again, continuing his ode to the Lord.

Man, and to think he didn't even get _laid_.


	6. Prayer in the Rain

Bright and early Wednesday morning, the photography room was buzzing with students discussing Halloween night yesterday and contemplating on what the day's photo assignment would be.

Mandy Wiles sat at her table, filing her perfectly manicured cerulean nails, indifferent and waiting for the class to start. She just knew the assignment would be outside today, and she wasn't really looking forward to going out to take pictures in the rain, even if she _did_ enjoy this class more than her other ones. She adjusted the letterman jacket she demanded Ted lend her for the day, studying her classmates, impartial.

What called her attention, however, was that the wooden stool beside her that was typically occupied by an irksome cowboy impersonator was empty. It wasn't like Jesse to come in late, and he was usually early anyway to get a head start on annoying everybody.

Thirty seconds before the bell rang, said cowboy impersonator walked into the classroom, his usually chirpy expression replaced with a melancholy, almost lonely one.

He did not greet Ms. Philips.

He did not wink at Pinky.

He did not blow a kiss to Eunice.

He did not make any teasing remarks to Mandy.

Mandy watched, one thin eyebrow raised, as he instead dragged his feet along the wooden floor and slumped himself down onto his stool before laying his head facedown onto the table. Rather than his football jersey or some other sports-related shirt, he wore a modest navy blue Bullworth sweatshirt with the hood up, obscuring Mandy's view from his chocolate colored locks.

A couple students seemed to catch on to his out-of-character behavior as well, and nervous, confused glances were shot Mandy and Jesse's way. Was he still hammered? Most of the student body was aware that Jesse Tyler's birthday was October 31st, and students were still buzzing about his party last night. Would Ms. Philips send him to the office for it? Had something happened to him last night?

Jesse, of course, didn't notice any of the glances—his face was still mushed up to the table, and he didn't bother looking up when the bell rang and Ms. Philips launched into a brief description of each of the partner sets' assignments. More confused glances, this time even from Ms. Philips herself, were thrown over at Jesse—he asked no stupid, blatantly obvious questions as he usually did.

Mandy, however, couldn't really care less. She'd seen how hammered the idiot had gotten last night—why else would he have gone nuts on those two town kids in the clubhouse? Of _course_ he'd be hung over out of his mind today—that was what he got for acting like a little freak. Besides, it wasn't like she _needed_ his help, he didn't have to go all macho marking-his-territory on them like he had. Mandy had had the situation under _control_.

She stood once Ms. Philips finished handing out assignments, and like the rest of the class, began heading for the door. About halfway there, she realized that Jesse wasn't trailing behind making smart remarks about her ass, and had instead stayed back, still slumped over the table like the little drunk he was.

Was he dead or something?

Cautious in case he suddenly started barfing all over the place, Mandy made her way over to him and poked him sharply in the back with her index finger, though he only emitted a low groan.

" _Whaaat_?" he murmured, his voice hoarse and rough. He looked up at Mandy with bloodshot eyes rather than his bright, gray ones, clearly he'd had a pretty bad night. Rolling her eyes, Mandy crossed her arms; it was his fault for getting so irresponsibly drunk on a school night.

"We have an _assignment_ to do, Tyler," Mandy scoffed, inspecting her nails once again. She already knew they weren't chipped, but still, it gave her something to do besides stare at this future alcoholic's face. He looked gross, he hadn't shaved this morning, and his eyes were grossly puffy.

Ew.

Jesse groaned and rose, stumbling forward a little and getting his Timberlands tangled between the legs of the stool. He fell forward, his left hand flying out and using Mandy's shoulder in order to stay upright, much to her displeasure and disapproval.

Irritated, Mandy placed her hands on his shoulders and shoved him with all her might, though he barely budged and only straightened into a standing position.

"I'm _not_ your support group," Mandy hissed, furious. There was no _way_ she was going to serve as his cane. She's sooner pick being partnered with that _fat chick_ than him.

Nodding slowly, Jesse made his way past her, the squeaking of the rubber soles of his Timberlands dragging against the wood floor calling Ms. Philips' attention. She studied him for a moment, immediately recognizing a hangover; she'd seen Lionel in the same state countless times, and it was no secret that the boy's eighteenth birthday had been yesterday. She supposed she could let it slide, just for today, so long as it didn't become a habit.

Besides, telling the headmaster that a student was hung over could open up an investigation to alcohol on the school grounds, which _obviously_ wouldn't benefit Lionel?

* * *

Walking down the staircase had been _quite_ an adventure, though not any that Mandy had enjoyed even in the least bit. She'd had to let Jesse use her shoulder for support the entire way down, and his weight mixed with his clumsiness had almost been too much for her. She'd found herself nearly tripping down the stairs on more than one occasion, though by some miracle they'd both gotten down in one piece, more importantly, she had.

Unfortunately, Ms. Philips had assigned Mandy and Jesse to go down to the church in Old Bullworth Vale to take pictures, and there was no _way_ Jesse was in any condition to walk or bike there.

Rather, Mandy had had to call a cab, to her displeasure, though Jesse hadn't protested or complained once when she had fished his wallet out of his shorts' pocket and used the cash he had inside it to pay for the taxi.

The two of them trekked down the dirt path that led to the church, just a couple feet away from where the cab had dropped them off. Mandy pulled Ted's jacket off and held it over her head in discomfort; it'd been drizzling since this morning, and she didn't want to get her hair or camera wet. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about the muddy path.

Jesse shoved his hands into his sweatshirt pocket, hood still up, as they made their way to the church. He'd had a real shitty night last night, and he hadn't slept at all in fear that he'd have the Dream again. The fact that he'd gotten carelessly drunk last night didn't help either, nor did the fact that his knuckles were still a bloody, painful wreck from… from _whatever_ he'd done last night.

His film camera hung lazily around his neck, bouncing up and down with each step he took in the sticky mud and slamming back down onto his chest like some sort of painful, torturous heartbeat, in sync with the throbbing pain in his head. That, orchestrated with the sloshing of his boots, paired together to make some sort of weird musical symphony. Strangely, he found himself almost enjoying it.

He turned his gray eyes up to the sky, studying the gray, cloudy texture to it and shaking off the raindrops that fell onto his face.

"'s overcast," he noted, "none too good for picturin'."

Mandy looked up, unsurprised to see that he was right about the weather. Still, it caught her off guard that he knew about photography weather conditions. "How do you know about _lighting_?" she inquired, sounding just a touch nastier than she'd intended.

"We're in the same class," Jesse retorted, making Mandy sneer despite his voice being light.

Bounding away from him in aggravation, she reached over to try and pull one of the heavy iron gates to the church open, only to be intercepted by Jesse.

Effortlessly, he pulled it open as if it were made of down feathers rather than iron that probably weighed more than he did and held it open for her, his sweatshirt sleeve covering the majority of his hand.

Mandy looked to him to thank him, but instead found that his gaze was concentrated on the dirt beside her feet. Annoyed, she scorned and brushed past him, channeling her bitchiest attitude.

She strut past the gravestones while repositioning Ted's jacket on her shoulders, paying no mind to anything in particular until she nearly crashed into the large marble statue placed in the center of the garden. Slowly, her brown eyes traveled up it, fixing on the crow that perched atop, until she heard a faint 'click' and saw the fading whisper of a camera flash.

"Did you seriously just take my picture?" Mandy demanded, glaring at Jesse, who had quietly trudged across to the other side of the statue and stood facing her.

He nodded innocently, lowering his camera from his face a couple inches. "You looked beautiful," he said bluntly yet sincerely, before turning and snapping a photograph of the church.

Color rose to Mandy's cheeks, and she felt her jaw drop just a little before hastily shrugging the minor feeling of flattery off. Jesse Tyler was a notorious flirt, and she knew well enough that he would do and say _anything_ to charm the pants off of any girl within reach.

Therefore, instead of wasting any time thanking him or acting praised, Mandy raised her camera to her own face and began snapping random pictures of the church and the graveyard, uninterested. She didn't really care about photographing weird, emo-goth stuff like this, and honestly she just wanted to get the assignment done and get out of the rain as soon as possible.

Besides, dealing with Jesse when he was in this weird mood was exhausting; she found that she preferred his usual pig-like ways. At least when he was acting _normal_ she could tell him off without risking him acting even _more_ emo.

A couple of lame pictures of graves and angled shots of the church later, Mandy allowed her camera to hang loosely around her neck as her eyes scanned the area in search of Jesse. "Tyler?" she called into the gloom, "I'm like, done, can we _go_?"

She explored the setting a little, just the slightest bit freaked out by the morbid, lonely, foggy scenery. Surprisingly, she found him kneeled in front of a small statuette of the Virgin Mary, hands pressed together tight, mumbling some sort of prayer or chant or whatever.

"Can you do that some _other_ time?" she complained, tapping her foot in annoyance. If he was going to be doing some silent ode to deep fryers or monster trucks or Texas or whatever, she rather he do it on his _own_ time. Class would be ending soon, and they only had enough time for a cab ride back.

Jesse ignored her, instead bowing his head lower and mumbling just a little quieter, making Mandy sure he was just doing it to spite her. He pressed his hands together even tighter, and Mandy for the first time noticed the scabs and dried blood all over the backs of his hands, a tinge of guilt electrocuting her. He _had_ been protecting her… more than Ted ever did, even.

After a moment, he crossed himself and stood, hastily wiping the dirt off his knees and shoving his hands back into his sweatshirt pocket as soon as he noticed her looking at them.

"I can't just stop in the middle of a prayer to somebody," he explained quietly, his voice monotone and sad, "it's real disrespectful."

He began making his way back to the gates and off the church grounds, Mandy jogging just a little in attempt to keep up. "Who were you praying to?" she asked before she could stop herself, forgetting for a moment that she didn't care.

Jesse hesitated, his discomfort apparent as her shifted in his sweatshirt uncomfortably. "Why, that's between me, her, and the good Lord himself, miss," he replied quietly, his voice polite and docile.

Scoffing, Mandy crossed her arms over her chest tightly, rolling her eyes. _Figures_ that he even wasted time _praying_ to _God_ about _girls_. Jeez, he was even crazier for girls than Casey was, and just last year _that_ idiot had accidentally gotten himself locked in the laundry room of the girls' dorm. They were both so immature and stupid.

"Whatever," she hissed, disgusted, "but _you_ call the cab this time."

"I'm okay with walkin' this time," Jesse responded innocently, letting out a small sigh. Prayer always made him feel better, even if just by a little tiny bit.

Mandy stopped, glaring at him when he turned to see what the matter was. "I am _not_ walking all the way back to school in the _rain_ ," she hissed, irritated that she even had to explain something as obvious as that to him.

Catching himself by surprise by letting out a small laugh, Jesse shrugged. "Whatever you say, ma'am."


	7. Safelight

The days were beginning to chill as Ms. Philips' 5th period Photography class waited for her to finish handing out the assignment score sheets from the previous week's photography project.

It'd been a few weeks since Mandy had found Jesse praying in the graveyard, and since then he'd been pretty careful about not praying around her anymore. He knew that Mandy was pretty nosy, and there was no way he was gonna let anybody other than Casey find out about _that_.

"Nice work, Jesse, 100%," Ms. Philips praised as she placed Jesse's score sheet in front of him on the table, smiling down at him. He grinned back at her, sliding in a sly wink, as he took the sheet.

"Why thank you, Ms. Philips," he replied, sneaking a smug look at Mandy, "I appreciate your complimentin'."

She chuckled, amused, as she continued passing out score sheets. Jesse peered over at Mandy's once Ms. Philips' back was turned, making no attempt to hide his laughter when he saw that Mandy scored only an 84%.

"Looks like I finally got the upper hand, don't I, sweetheart?" he cooed, crossing his arms over his thick chest in triumph.

Mandy scoffed, rolling her eyes at him. "Just 'cause you flirt your way to an 'A' doesn't mean you have the upper hand or whatever, loser," she shot back.

He just laughed harder, his eyes crinkling up as he did so. He leaned forward, grabbing his score sheet before shoving it into his backpack. He then pulled out two film canisters, setting them carefully on the table.

"I gotta make some prints today. You headed to the dark room today?"

Mandy looked over at him, studying his face for any signs of joking. What, was he actually pretending he knew how to make prints?

"You need to develop the film _before_ you start making prints," Mandy retorted, shaking her head.

Jesse raised an eyebrow at her, a little bit surprised. He opened up the canister and showed her the role of developed film, waving it in front of her pretty face like he would a treat in front of the face of a dog. "It's already developed, darlin'," he coaxed, "I did that yesterday while you were doin' whatever it is you do."

She watched the film, trying to focus in on what the images were. They'd been photography partners since the year started, yet she hadn't seen any of his pictures yet. Still, it surprised Mandy that Jesse even _knew_ how to develop film, and hadn't like, tried to drink the stop or the fixer or something.

Mandy bat his hand away, annoyed. She reached into her own bag and pulled out her own film canister, hastily standing up off of her stool and making her way to the dark room. "Whatever, Tyler, let's just get this over with. And try not to break any of the enlargers?"

His laughter echoed loudly from behind her, making her smile just a little bit as they entered the dark room. Mandy stood at the entrance for a moment, wanting to get him pretending to bump into her to cop a feel over with, but was instead caught off guard when she saw one of the enlarger lights flip on.

She craned her neck to see what image was lit up onto the blank photo paper, but Jesse stood right in front of it, blocking her view. The timer went off, as did the light, and Jesse immediately turned and dumped the paper into the developer.

"Aren't you gonna get workin'?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her in the dim light of the safelight.

"Yeah," she snapped back, grabbing her pack of photo paper and slapping it onto the enlarger table beside the one that Jesse was using, "I mean, we literally just got here. How'd you get so fast?"

Jesse shrugged, reaching up to the film carrier and sliding over his film strip, but not turning on the enlarger light to focus the image. "I come here before football practice sometimes," he admitted, walking back over to the chemical table and moving his picture over to the stop bath with a pair of tongs.

She snorted at that, turning on the enlarger light and adjusting the focus knob and elevation knobs so that her lame picture of a tree looked nice and clear on the baseboard before flicking the light off and placing a fresh sheet of photo paper underneath. She set the timer for three seconds and let the light run, before grabbing the photo and making her way over to the chemical baths.

In less than a second, Jesse appeared in front of her, hastily turning his photograph over in the stop bath with the tongs. Mandy stared at him, confused and, quite frankly, annoyed, could he _not_ act like such a freak in a dark setting?

"Hey, Tyler? Could you like, _move_?" she demanded, holding the photo paper tight against her stomach. Ms. Philips had told them the first day of class that while the safelight was okay to keep on in the darkroom, it still could expose their photos if they left the paper out too long.

Jesse nodded, craning his neck forward so that his hair covered his eyes. He placed the photo into the fixer bath before handing the tongs back to Mandy, and then made his way back to his enlarger to print another photo.

Mandy rolled his eyes; he'd probably taken a dick picture or something with his film camera and had decided to give it to some girl. _Loser_.

"So uh," Jesse mumbled from his enlarger, not bothering to turn and face her, "um… how are you and Ted?"

Her hand curled tightly around the tongs she was holding, just barely submerging the photo in the developer bath. "Huh?" Mandy mumbled, distracted, until she realized that a quarter of her photo had started developing. Annoyed, she dunked in the rest and threw the tongs down.

"Why are you asking about me and Ted?" she demanded, placing one hand on her hip and sinking into it. What, so now he just acted all weird one week, then knew all about photography, and now he was prying into her social life?

Jesse shrugged, approaching her and dropping his photograph into the developer bath facedown. "Just makin' conversation, darlin'," he replied, a little bit let down.

They stood like that for a moment, staring at each other, Mandy annoyed and Jesse innocent.

"Aren't you gonna see if your picture's exposed right?" Mandy asked after a minute, desperate for something to say to break the silence with.

Instead, he shook his head, reaching into the developer with his bare hand and dropping his own photograph and Mandy's into the stop, and then taking his earlier photograph and dumping it into the water bath. "I've done this enough times to know what I'm doin," he explained with a wink.

"Sure," Mandy replied sarcastically, swishing her photo around with the tongs. Her eyes wandered to Jesse's, which he was still swirling around in the water, facedown. What was his deal?

"So what'd you take pictures of?" she asked nonchalantly, studying her own picture glumly. A quarter of it was darker than the rest, and it was terribly out of focus. What the hell? It looked so nice and sharp on the light…

Jesse shrugged, biting his lip. "Just um, nature and religious stuff. Stuff that reminds me of home, I guess."

"Can I _see_?" Mandy pressed on, raising an eyebrow.

Jesse hastily shook his head, grabbing his second photo and shoving it into the fixer. "They ain't ready. By the way, darlin', you gotta set the light on the brightest setting 'fore you go and try to focus it. Otherwise you ain't gonna see it none too clear."

"I _know_ ," Mandy lied, aggravated. Okay, so she didn't know, but there was no way she was just gonna take _Jesse Tyler_ trying to teach her about anything having to do with a class.

He grinned charmingly at her, his gray eyes lit up in a dim orange faze by the safelight, and he looked almost attractive. "Alright, sweetheart," he replied, grabbing both his photos and dunking them in the water for a second, "whatever you say."

With that, he grabbed his photography binder and film strip and exited the dark room.

Jesse 2, Mandy 0.


	8. Rule Breaking

"Come on dude, we gotta get on the Squid first!"

Jesse stumbled slightly as Casey and Ted shoved past him, sprinting towards the line to the Big Squid and pushing and shoving their way to the front past all the public school kids and weaker Bullworth students. He managed to jump out of the way as the other guys of the football team rushed past as well, following behind Ted, mimicking his pushing and shoving to get to the front of the line. The ones that remained out of the line were Jesse himself and Mandy.

He stuck his hands into his letterman jacket pockets, slouching as he engulfed himself in a bitter, silent temper tantrum. On Wednesday, he'd made the mistake of asking Mandy if she wanted to go to the carnival with him today-Friday. The mistake part was that he'd asked during lunch, with all the other guys around, and within seconds it'd turned into a team field trip. Jesse had tried calling it off since then, but they ignored him-including Mandy. It was pretty damn frustrating.

Rather than pushing, he simply walked past the line, ignoring the other kids' complaints. Ten steps remained between him and the compartment that Casey and Ted had claimed when Jesse felt a light tug on his sleeve. He turned, confused, meeting Mandy's pout.

"Can you please go on the Ferris wheel? I hate this ride, and there's no way Ted's gonna go on the Ferris wheel."

Jesse stopped, considering his for a moment, already having decided to agree to this a few seconds ago. He looked back to Casey and Ted, an unsure look on his face.

"Come on, Jess, we've been talking about going on this ride since last year!" Casey whined, gripping the door to the compartment.

"Yeah, come on Mandy! You can go on the wheel by yourself!" Ted added, shooting an aggravated look Mandy's way.

Jesse frowned at this, his mind momentarily wandering to yesterday afternoon, when he'd seen Ted and Mandy kissing in the locker room before practice. It was pretty shocking that they could go from a model high school couple having a make-out session in a locker room to him chiding her for not wanting to go on some crazy ride with him.

"Aw, the little miss just wants to ride the Ferris wheel, y'all. It's alright', it'll be here when I get back. Just don't throw up or nothin' 'til I get back, ya hear?"

The other two jocks slumped back in their shared seat, disappointed, but accepting of Jesse's proposition. Pleased with their willingness to comply, Jesse stepped down from the platform and joined Mandy.

She led him to the Ferris wheel, for the first time since the beginning of the school year walking in sync with him rather than a few paces ahead, as usual. It was enough to catch his notice, though he didn't say anything about it.

"Thanks, Jesse," she said suddenly, and he glanced down to look over at her, "none of the other guys would've gone on this ride with me. I really appreciate it."

He grinned at her, admiring the way that the shitty fluorescent carnival lights illuminated her face and still managed to look flattering on her. "Why, it's no worries, darlin'. I don't mind."

The line to the Ferris wheel was considerably shorter than that of the Big Squid, and it didn't take long until Mandy and Jesse stepped into the final compartment of the wheel. He nudged Mandy as they climbed on, nodding over to the compartment behind them, where Beatrice Trudeau and one of the skinny nerdlings sat, holding hands. The two jocks laughed. Dorks.

"This is nice," Jesse said once the ride began turning slowly, leaning back in seat and placing his arm on the backrest behind Mandy. Naturally, she'd scoot away from him or shoot him a dirty look, but this time she shifted slightly closer to him. It was enough to catch his notice, but once again he said nothing about it.

"You think so? I would've thought you'd think this is like, lame."

Reaching into the back pocket of his Levi jeans, Jesse chuckled, shaking his head. "Nah, it reminds me a little bit of ridin' my horse, Catolo." He fished his wallet out, flipping it open and showing her one of the I.D. slots that'd been filled with a picture of Jesse at age 15, sanding alongside his black American quarter horse, Catolo.

She inched closer to him, inspecting the photograph. "I didn't know you had a horse," she admitted quietly, her voice small.

Jesse let out a loud laugh, raising an eyebrow at her. "Sweetheart, you're tryin' to tell me you go 'round callin' me a hillbilly to anyone who'll listen and you didn't think I had no horse?"

She met his gaze, laughing with him upon seeing his amused grin. "I just didn't want to assume."

"You know, you're real full of it, darlin'."

They laughed together, and soon enough, Jesse found them sitting together in a comfortable silence, Mandy leaning into his chest.

"I wanted a horse, once," Mandy revealed suddenly, her gaze still focused on the carnival beneath them, "a pony. I was like, eight."

Jesse looked at her, a mischievous grin. "Lemme guess. A pink one?"

"Oh shut up!" Mandy teased, laughing, and he laughed with her. It took a couple seconds for Jesse to realize they'd been in the exact same spot for the past five minutes.

"Say..." he mumbled, suddenly serious, "is this thing supposed to be stopped so long?"

As if on cue, a voice boomed up from below them, and both Jesse and Mandy leaned over to see where the source was. The guy who'd been manning the ride stood in front of the Ferris wheel with a megaphone.

"Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen, this happens all the time! I can get this fixed!"

Jesse leaned over the edge, looking down at the guy, who was now speedwalking over to the ride mechanics. He could hear the man cursing even from the altitude he was at, and he watched as the passengers in the bottom compartments easily climbed out of their seats to continue exploring the carnival. He and Mandy were at the very top.

He sat back and looked at Mandy, shrugging. "I guess we're stuck here for now."

She frowned, looking at him with a guilty expression. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to miss out on riding the Squid..."

This was replied to with a loud laugh from Jesse. "Miss out? Darlin', I didn't even wanna ride on that pukefest to begin with. Sure, it's real fun when it's just me and Casey clownin' 'round, but the whole team? You just wait, they'll all be smelly as a chicken shit let out in the sun on a warm August day."

Mandy made a rather disgusted face at the expression, but to Jesse's surprised, laughed it off pretty quickly. "I just wish it weren't so cold up here."

Without even bothering to ask her, Jesse pulled his letterman jacket off and slung it around her shoulders, shifting in his football jersey at the sudden change of temperature. He knew the jacket would keep her warm-he was a naturally warm guy, heat seemed to radiate off his skin. Jesse thought it had something to do with being from Texas.

"You didn't have to..." Mandy began, but trailed off, pulling the jacket tight around his shoulders. It was so warm, and smelled faintly of men's cologne. Not something shitty like she would've expected, but more of hints of a Kevin Clone cologne. It was nice, she thought.

* * *

Half an hour later, Jesse helped Mandy climb out of their compartment. They were the last ones to get off the ride, having been at the highest point, and sometime during the wait Mandy had fallen asleep. She was still a little off balance, so Jesse did his best to help steady her.

"Where have you guys been?!"

Their attention was immediately taken by the voice of Casey Harris, who was jogging towards them alongside Ted. They look tired, and pretty annoyed.

"The ride got stuck man, ain't our fault. There still any time to go on any other rides?"

"You kidding?" Ted asked, raising an eyebrow at Jesse. "There's barely time to get out of here. It's 2:30 and the only reason we haven't been arrested yet is 'cause we told the cops we were looking for you guys. All the other guys went back to Bullworth."

He caught the eye of Officer Williams, who hung around nearby eyeing the four teenagers, and immediately started leading the other three to the carnival's exit-he couldn't risk another detention, or he'd be out of the first game of the season.

"How was the Squid?" Jesse asked Casey as he walked alongside him, a couple feet behind Mandy and Ted. He didn't really care about the Squid, but it seemed pretty important to Casey.

Casey shrugged, inspecting the carnival scenery ahead of him. "It was fun man, but it would've been better with you. You would've loved i-..."

He trailed off for a second, stopping, before snatching Jesse's jacket off of Mandy's back. When she turned and shot him a dirty look, he snapped back that it was only a player privilege, before shoving it into Jesse's hands.

"You didn't have to do that," Jesse mumbled to Casey once Ted and Mandy were out of earshot.

Casey eyed him from the corner of his eye, worried.

"You know the rules, man."


	9. Sweater Weather

p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Just hold it over the sand there, yeah, like that!"/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Quickly, Jesse held his Genic Digital over Mandy's hand, which was currently holding a blood red rose, and snapped a picture. He looked at the back of the camera and the histogram, proud that it was so properly exposed after only a single shot./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"He chuckled as Mandy got up on her tiptoes to see the little screen on the back of his camera, pulling her blue sweater tight around herself. It'd gotten pretty cold around Bullworth, and Christmas was just around the corner./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""I don't get it, out here it looks so plain but then on your camera you make it look so beautiful..."/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Jesse smiled at her, his eyes soft. "Having a gorgeous model don't hurt neither," he replied, switching his camera off to conserve its battery. He laughed as she looked away, a small smile on her lips./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"It was funny how much had changed between them since the beginning of the schoolyear. Sometimes he still expected her to insult him./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Lil miss, I'd love to stick 'round here takin' your pretty picture forever, but if I ain't mistaken, you got some pictures to be takin' too," Jesse reminded her, his tone changing from soft and sweet to more casual and teasing./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Upon seeing the vast change in her expression, he immediately regretted reminding her. She shifted her weight uncomfortably from one foot to another, wrapping her arms around herself./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""It's kind of hard to take pictures with a romance theme when your boyfriend spends more time with his EXsorbeo than he does with you..."/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Jesse let out a sigh, when an idea popped into his head. He reached for the tripod that was settled into a carrying bag on his back, awkwardly pulling it out through the bulk of his letterman jacket. It was a bit embarrassing, stumbling around on the sand trying to get the damn thing out, but Mandy's giggles made it worth it, he decided./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Let's do the project together," he suggested when he finally got the tripod out, setting it down onto the sand and positioning it so that he could place his Genic on it. "I mean, we are partners, ain't like she just stuck us together so we'd pretty up the classroom."/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Though, it'd be a real fair idea," he added slyly, sneaking in a coy wink Mandy's way./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"She rolled his eyes at his cheesy flirting, beyond used to it right now. Though, she did admit, it added to his cuteness... a lot./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Wait, what?/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""How are we gonna work on it together?" Mandy inquired, placing a hand on one hip, "it only takes one person to push a shutter."/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""But," Jesse countered, crossing his arms proudly, "it takes two people to fall in love."/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"She reddened at this, though why, she did not know. After mulling it over for a moment, Mandy nodded, deciding this idea wasn't half bad. Jesse was a surprisingly good photographer, after all./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"He grinned what he'd surely describe as a 'real Texas smile' at her, before pulling his letterman jacket off, revealing a navy blue Bullworth hoodie underneath with the sleeves crudely cut off by what appeared to be blunt scissors. "Take your sweater off, darlin," he commanded, grinning wildly./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Raising an eyebrow, Mandy couldn't help but blink. "What?"/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Aw come on, you know I ain't gonna try nothin'," Jesse countered, rolling his eyes./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"But she trusted him, so she pulled her sweater off and stood there shivering in her cheer tank top. Meanwhile, Jesse walked around to the camera and set it to take twenty pictures consecutively after ten seconds./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Not long after, he stood in front of her and turned her around so she was facing the ocean. He placed the letterman jacket around her shoulders and wrapped his arms around her, his head resting on her shoulder as he looked out onto the horizon with her./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Mandy heard the first few faint clicks of the camera, and slowly she and Jesse began turning to face each other. Their lips attracted to each other like magnets, and he felt his eyes slip shut, something he wasn't too used to. Kissing Mandy wasn't like kissing Christy or Angie, or any of the public school girls. She didn't wear any lip gloss, and her lips were warm and sweet, like candy./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"He barely heard the camera clicks as they went off on the camera, instead wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her in close as if any gust of wind or slight pull from the ocean waves beneath them would take her away from him. It was weird; he felt like he was falling, but at the same time, she was the only thing keeping him grounded. It didn't make sense at all, it terrified him, and yet he liked it./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Jesse?"/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Shit," said country boy mumbled, parting away from Mandy and pulling his jacket off of her, hastily shoving her sweater to her. He felt giddy and rushed, wondering if Casey has seen them. He looked over in the direction of his best friend's voice, and saw that he was climbing down the steps from the docks./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Alright, pretty fair chance that he hadn't seen them, Jesse decided, grabbing his camera off of the tripod as Mandy pulled her sweater on./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Within seconds, Casey stood by the two of them, eyes flickering suspiciously between them. Both Mandy and Jesse's faces were flushed; Jesse with an annoyed look, Mandy looking as if she wasn't quite sure where she was standing./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""What's up, guys?" Casey asked slowly./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Jesse shot a look at Mandy from the corner of his eye, but her gaze remained fixed on a small seashell sitting on the beach./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Um, we were just taking pictures for class," Jesse replied honestly, eyes shifting down to his Hinterland boots. Well, it wasn't like he was emlying /emto Casey./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Man, that's girly as hell!" Casey laughed, slapping Jesse hard on the shoulder. He gave Mandy an amused look, as if she were agreeing with him that taking photographs were a feminine action, shaking his head. "Lame. Hey, Mandy, you mind if I borrow Brad Paisley over here for a bit?/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Oh," Mandy mumbled, as if just checking back into reality, "um, yeah I guess. I can tell Ms. Philips you didn't feel well... I guess..." she said to Jesse, reaching out towards him./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Confused, Jesse stared at her hand, wondering what on the Lord's holy earth she planned for him to do with it. It wasn't until after a moment that he realized she wanted his camera, so that she would be able to turn in their assignment when she got back to the school. Wordlessly, he handed it over, giving her a serious look as if telling her to make sure to not print out the photographs of them... emkissing/em./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Mandy gave them both a small, awkward smile before heading off in the direction of the nearest bus stop, both Jesse and Casey watching after her. Jesse hoped she go back okay, he wished he could go with her. He didn't trust the bus to take real care of her, even if the distance wasn't that long. He'd rather walk her, but he couldn't do anything without it looking too suspicious to Casey./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"He was dragged out of his thoughts by Casey hastily grabbing him by the elbow, dragging him behind him as he marched towards the docks with Jesse in tow./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""Come on man, we've got a lot to talk about."/p  
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; border: 0px; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-center; background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)) #cbcbcb;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""What the hell do you think you're doing, man?" Casey asked, shoving Jesse into their dorm the moment they stood in front of the door./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Jesse stumbled in, his feet tangling in a par of boxers somebody had decided to just toss onto the floor. Regaining his balance, he shot an annoyed look at Casey. "What are you talkin' about, man?"/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Casey shut the door behind them, striding up to Jesse and continuing in a hushed, urgent whisper. "You know what I'm talking about! What are you doing fooling around with Ted's girl, man?! Are you crazy? This violates guy code on so many levels!"/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Rolling his eyes, Jesse slumped down onto his bed. "As if I'm the first guy to go after Mandy behind Ted's back," he shot back, annoyed. Shit, even Damon's gone after Mandy, and he's supposed to be Ted's best friend. Casey couldn't seriously be freaking out this much just 'cause Jesse'd gone for a shot./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""There's a big difference between going after and actually kissing," Casey retorted, rolling his eyes. Even he wasn't stupid enough to confuse that./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Jesse shrugged, laying down onto his pillow and crossing his arms behind his head. He didn't care what Casey said, it wasn't like Ted would even care. He and Jesse were way too tight. Jesse wouldn't care if Ted hooked up with Christy, so he really doubted Ted would bat an eyelash at Jesse just kissing Mandy. "I don't see the big deal," he said nonchalantly to Casey./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Casey shook his head, getting more and more frustrated with Jesse. "You'll get it when he finds out."/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"That struck a nerve. Jesse sat up abruptly, glaring directly at Casey. "What, are you tellin' me you're gonna tell him?"/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Crossing his arms, Casey mirrored Jesse's glare. "Why shouldn't I?"/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"They remained like that for a couple beats, glaring at each other as if they hated each other. It didn't take long for them both to break./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""I just don't want you to get fucked over 'cause of one chick," Casey admitted, sighing. Jesse considered this for a moment, nodding./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""I know man but... she's different."/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Casey studied his best friend, uncertain of what to do. On one hand, he'd never heard Jesse refer to any girl as different, and it was pretty clear he felt something for Mandy, nothing like what he'd "felt" for Angie or Christy or any of the chicks from the public school, but something real. Yet, on the other hand, he knew how dangerous, and stupid, and just plain wrong this was./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;""I'm telling you man, it's a shit idea."/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"Well, that was just a risk Jesse would have to take./p 


	10. Snowfall

"What the hell do you think you're doing, man?" Casey asked, shoving Jesse into their dorm the moment they stood in front of the door.

Jesse stumbled in, his feet tangling in a par of boxers somebody had decided to just toss onto the floor. Regaining his balance, he shot an annoyed look at Casey. "What are you talkin' about, man?"

Casey shut the door behind them, striding up to Jesse and continuing in a hushed, urgent whisper. "You know what I'm talking about! What are you doing fooling around with Ted's girl, man?! Are you crazy? This violates guy code on so many levels!"

Rolling his eyes, Jesse slumped down onto his bed. "As if I'm the first guy to go after Mandy behind Ted's back," he shot back, annoyed. Shit, even Damon's gone after Mandy, and he's supposed to be Ted's best friend. Casey couldn't seriously be freaking out this much just 'cause Jesse'd gone for a shot.

"There's a big difference between going after and actually kissing," Casey retorted, rolling his eyes. Even he wasn't stupid enough to confuse that.

Jesse shrugged, laying down onto his pillow and crossing his arms behind his head. He didn't care what Casey said, it wasn't like Ted would even care. He and Jesse were way too tight. Jesse wouldn't care if Ted hooked up with Christy, so he really doubted Ted would bat an eyelash at Jesse just kissing Mandy. "I don't see the big deal," he said nonchalantly to Casey.

Casey shook his head, getting more and more frustrated with Jesse. "You'll get it when he finds out."

That struck a nerve. Jesse sat up abruptly, glaring directly at Casey. "What, are you tellin' me you're gonna tell him?"

Crossing his arms, Casey mirrored Jesse's glare. "Why shouldn't I?"

They remained like that for a couple beats, glaring at each other as if they hated each other. It didn't take long for them both to break.

"I just don't want you to get fucked over 'cause of one chick," Casey admitted, sighing. Jesse considered this for a moment, nodding.

"I know man but... she's different."

Casey studied his best friend, uncertain of what to do. On one hand, he'd never heard Jesse refer to any girl as different, and it was pretty clear he felt something for Mandy, nothing like what he'd "felt" for Angie or Christy or any of the chicks from the public school, but something real. Yet, on the other hand, he knew how dangerous, and stupid, and just plain wrong this was.

"I'm telling you man, it's a shit idea."

Well, that was just a risk Jesse would have to take.

* * *

It'd been a couple weeks since Casey had warned him, and Jesse was still thinking about it as he worked diligently in the dark room after school. He had to get the prints done before five o' clock; it was a miracle Crabblesnitch had even let him in today, being as it was Christmas Eve. He was just lucky the drama class kids had to be in the auditorium today to set up for their stupid Christmas play or pageant or whatever, so the front door was unlocked to begin with.

On the table behind him were prints already drying off, each one a noir window to moments in his past, mainly moments in which Mandy was present. At the beach, in class, around town, laughing, smiling, frowning-anything, but all her. Most of them were candid.

Things had not changed between them since the day on the beach when he had kissed her. If anything, they were more 'the same' as they'd ever been. They still sat together during Photography, he still flirted with her and she still resisted.

Casey hadn't made good on his threat either, and honestly, Jesse hadn't expected him to anyway. Ted remained clueless, still laughing it up and yelling across the locker room with Jesse before and after practices. Jesse was still included when Ted and Damon wanted to head out into town, welcomed with open arms and missed when he couldn't go because of some bullshit detention.

Jesse sighed to himself as he set yet another shot of Mandy out to dry. He didn't know when it'd happened, or why, but he was pretty sure she was the reason for his skills in Photography. He could still remember his first shooting assignment, when he'd handed in and Ms. Philips had stopped, surprised that a Jock as laid back as himself could capture something so vividly. Hell, the entire class was in shock the moment one of Jesse's prints was shown to them. Before long, a whole bunch of little art nerdlings were asking him to join on their clubs. That weird Goth kid, Constantinos, had even asked him to join the Yearbook team.

She was his muse, it was plain and simple. Every emotion the film or the back of his digital camera held, it was all due to her. Up until today he didn't even know what to label it. Whenever he saw her, his day brightened, he couldn't hear anything but the smooth sound of her voice. From dissing an insecure girl to opening up about how much Ted hurt her, Jesse found anything Mandy said to be soothing.

And just like that, he knew he had to tell her.

* * *

The wind blew delicately around Mandy's thin form as she stood by City Hall that afternoon in Bullworth Town.

About half an hour ago, Jesse had texted her, asking her to meet him. All the better, though; she'd been meaning to speak with him alone for a while. It was kinda difficult to do that, what with her trying to avoid him to the best of her abilities.

The unmistakable sound of leaves crunching underneath heavy Hinterland boots caught her attention, signaling to her that Jesse had arrived. He stood a couple feet for her, a thick navy blue scarf around his neck, his letterman jacket buttoned up, a pair of light blue jeans on his legs, and a huge smile on his face.

"Fancy seein' you here," he said slowly, his voice carried out by the snow-kissed wind towards her. He began approaching her, and Mandy found herself unable to move. There was something about his voice that kept her anchored there. It was as smooth as chocolate dipped in caramel.

Within seconds he stood in front of her, his lips pressed to her forehead and his hand taking her own. "I came here 'cause I need to tell you somethin', and it ain't somethin' I ever told nobody before."

She held her breath, unable to help feeling just a little bit excited. She had a vague idea she knew what it was, but she wasn't exactly ecstatic to hear it.

Jesse took a deep breath, smiling down at her, taking her anticipation for joy. "I think I'm in love with you," he mumbled quietly, the world around him suddenly muting itself. All he could hear were her breaths and the crunching of snow underneath her feet.

Mandy opened her mouth to speak, but found her voice had left her. She told herself to tear her hand away from him and run to Bullworth, into Ted's arms, but she was left unable. Something in his gray eyes kept her glued to where she stood.

It took a couple seconds to process he was nearing her, the intention to kiss her apparent as his eyes began slipping shut, and as his arms wrapped themselves around her tightly.

"I can't," she blurted out instantly, the realization of what was happening granting her her movement once again, and she jumped away from him as if he were on fire.

"I can't," she repeated, oddly out of breath, "I can't do this to Ted. I love Ted. And he... he loves me, too. I can't do this to him. Especially not on Christmas."

Jesse stared back at her, a bit lost and hazy. What the hell? Ten seconds ago he was about to kiss the girl he loved. Now she was telling him all sorts of crazy things.

"You said he loves playin' video games more than he likes spendin' time with you," Jesse replied bluntly.

She winced at that, a bit hurt he'd remind her of it. "That doesn't mean I should just go ahead and cheat on him... with one of his best friends."

He felt his insides crashing down, but he couldn't feel any grief, not yet anyway. Something else was bubbling inside him. Something familiar, something he'd last felt on his birthday.

"You're tellin' me, you hate the way he treats you, but as soon as I try and save you from it you're gonna push me away? What happened to all that cuddlin', huh? Tellin' me you were so grateful for me? Kissin' me on the beach that day like it was readin' the mornin' paper?"

Mandy shivered as his voice began raising, his eyes turning from sweet and soft to cold and unforgiving in the pale streetlight. "I'm sorry, I just... I don't know what I want right now and-"

"Like hell you don't know what you want right now!" Jesse roared, his heartbeat soaring. What the fuck was happening? Why was she doing this now? Sweet Jesus, he just told her he loved her and this was how she was gonna treat him?

"What is it? You want both of us, huh? The entire football team? Is that it? Ain't it enough for little miss goddamn head cheerleader?" He screamed, knowing the townsfolk around him were starting to stare. Frustrated, he kicked over a Christmas decoration into the ground and turned to glare at her.

Mandy stood silent, motionless. She'd seen him like this once before. When he nearly killed those two Townie kids. Only this time, Casey wasn't around to calm him down.

"You're full of it, Mandy! You're goddamn full of it!" He screamed, pulling something out of his pocket and slamming it down onto the snow below his feet. "And I'm sick of it!"

He let out one final, frustrated huff of air, before turning on his heel and striding away from her just as easily as he'd come. Mandy kneeled down and picked up the object he'd thrown. It was a locket, with the picture of them on the beach inside.


	11. Clouded

He wasn't sure how he got there, but Jesse found himself inside of Burger not ten minutes later. His heavy breathing suggested he'd ran, but how long he didn't know. He could barely remember having met up with Mandy. All he knew is that when he tried to call up the memory, it made him real sad. Best to leave it.

Looking around, his gaze settled on two familiar girls. One prim and proper, a girl he'd been more or less friends with in his opinion since he met her, the cousin of that loser Harrington kid. Piper, and across from her was the blonde chick from the first day of school, but she looked like she'd just gotten out of a fight. Knowing that she ran with Johnny Vincent's crowd, Jesse wasn't surprised.

Without hesitation, he strode over and sat down, instantly feeling a little bit better by the company. He could sense the girl beside him, Alexis, tense up the moment he did.

"'Scuse me, ladies," he said, minding his manners, "I've just had a real bad night and I'm just lookin' for some company that ain't superficial."

"That's alright, Jesse," Piper mumbled, and Jesse almost shivered at the warmness of her voice, "I believe all three of us have had unpleasant nights."

He looked up and smiled at her, unable to help a small, borderline hysterical laugh from escaping his lips. Hell, if Piper was being this nice to him right off the bat, she must've had a pretty bad night, too. Automatically, he leaned back and set his arm around Alexis' shoulder, a habit he'd formed when he felt himself losing it a little and Casey was around. Helped to remind him he wasn't alone.

"I'm guessin' yours mighta had somethin' to do with a boy?" he asked, remembering her engagement to Parker, the little snot who'd once asked him for girl advice, "'Cause my situation sure had somethin' to do with a lady, and it didn't turn out none too well."

Alexis surprised him by speaking up, something he'd begun to think she wasn't quite capable of.

"Well, mine did," she mumbled, getting Jesse's attention. He turned his gaze to look at her, but she was looking away.

"Miss Monroe, is it?" he asked, not wanting to be calling her by the wrong name when she was in a low spot. When she nodded, he continued. "Well, if you don't mind my askin', just what is it that happened to make you upset?"

He watched her think for a moment, and when she spoke he could've sworn she was trying not to cry. "One of my best friends, Johnny Vincent? He broke up with his dame, and decided to try and tell me it's me he loves, but I know that isn't true. He's just lonely; he's done it before." She stopped for a moment, studying him, so Jesse did his best to look serious and understanding. "His old girl, Patti? He was real into her, too. Then when they broke up, same thing happened, not as much, though. He wasn't as broken up about it as he was 'bout this one. I don't know, I didn't wanna fall for it no more."

Jesse took a sharp intake of breath, the stupid grease monkey's actions reminding him of Mandy, and suddenly his anger towards her was directed towards the Vincent kid.

"Sounds like a real rat," he growled, his heartbeat escalating, "you just say the word and I'll get the entire football team and we'll teach that greaseball a lesson."

At least he could get the guys to beat up that guy without too much protest or confusion.

He gave Alexis a light hug as she politely turned down his offer, before turning to Piper, a desire to help both girls feel better overtaking him. He felt pretty bad himself, he didn't want them to be this upset, too. "What about you, lil' miss Harrington? Who hurt you on this fine night?"

Jesse watched as she frowned suddenly, trying to deny the fact that she was upset.

"We-Well... he didn't quite hurt me to say the truth..."

He interrupted her, not feeling like watching her try and hide it. "Now if you don't mind my language," he said, "that's some real bullshit, miss. I can see right in your eyes, you're hurtin' bad,"

She started again, this time willing to be honest. "Well, you see, it's Bif. You know, Bif Taylor, the boxer? He's been quite apprehensive on how he feels for me, lately, and just today he's decided that he loves me. I suspect he simply isn't quite ready to lose me to Parker, however..."

"He's a dick," Alexis shot out from beside Jesse, "he's an absolute jerk."

"That sure don't sound too nice," Jesse agreed, deciding to be a little more tactful than just straight up calling the guy names. Still, the familiar pang of anger struck him in the chest, though he did his best to hide it this time. Wouldn't be too useful to fly into a rage at this moment, without Casey around.

"What about you, Tyler?" Alexis suddenly growled at him. "Who's tugging at your heartstrings?"

He stopped for a moment, thinking it over. "Why, I'll have to swear both you ladies to secrecy. This kinda thing will tear the football team right to shreds, yeah?"

Stifling the chuckle that came as the girls leaned in, interested by the promise of some sort of juicy piece of gossip, he decided to just go ahead and tell them. "You see," he admitted, staring down at a smudge on the table, "I think I made the mistake of fallin' in love with the head cheerleader, Mandy Wiles."

The silence lay over them like a constricting blanket, and he could tell they were shocked by his honesty.

"That... that certainly is a predicament..." Piper mumbled after a bit. He nodded, agreeing with her.

"She says she don't know what she wants, though. I reckon she just wants to stir up drama, and it's workin'. I ain't ever felt this mixed up about a lady yet... here I am, wanderin' the streets and pilin' my problems on top of two already stressed out ladies."

"It's fine, man," Alexis said from beside him, "guess we're all fucked on Christmas. Dandy."

They sat in silence for what felt like a while, until Piper suddenly rushed out after getting some text on her phone, and then it was just Jesse and Alexis. That is, until that shady kid Jason Griffith came in to get her.

"Sorry Jess," Alexis told him as she watched the kid, and Jesse could tell she didn't know him. "I gotta go."

"All good," he replied, distrusting of Griffith but knowing Alexis wouldn't allow him to tell her what to do, "just gimme a ring if you need me."

And then he was alone. He sat like that for a while, alone in the booth, growing tired at every minute that ticked by. He ate the burger Alexis never touched, and it sat in his stomach like a rock. He wondered for a brief moment if he'd die there, in that booth, heartbroken and alone.

The bells of the burger joint chimed as someone entered, and for a wild second Jesse wondered if it was Alexis coming to complain about the burger he'd eaten. Turning, ready to be chided, he was surprised to find himself looking at some kid in a big black hoodie.

"You," the kid said, and Jesse struggled to look away from that weird mohawk of his, dyed black and green. He'd seen this kid around school.

"Me?" he asked dumbly.

"Yeah, you. Football player, right? You look like you could use a pick-me-up."

The boy walked over to Jesse's booth, taking a seat in the vacant side facing Jesse. "My name's Duncan, and that's all you need to know right now. I've got some stuff that can help you out in more ways than one. Get you to the top of the team, that kind of thing. You get it?"

"I ain't into no steroid shit," Jesse replied automatically, angry. Maybe he was still mad about the Mandy thing. He didn't know.

"Shut the fuck up and listen, dumbass," Duncan snapped, clearly not taking no for answer. "Don't talk so fucking loud. It's not just steroids, you stupid hillbilly. Come on, get the fuck up and take a look before you tell me to go to hell."

Good judgement be damned, Jesse shrugged and stood, ready to follow this Duncan kid wherever it was he wanted to go. He was too damn hurt right now to think it through.


	12. Trust

The night air was cooling around Jesse, and he realized he should've worn something thicker than just his letterman jacket in order to bear the December breeze. He shoved his hands deeper in his pockets, keeping his head low in a futile attempt to maintain warm.

He wasn't surprised when Duncan led him to a house just past the underpass in New Coventry, worn-down with loud, angry music blasting from inside. He hopped up the stairs and pushed the door open just far enough to slip his arm through and undo the door chain. The door swept open and Duncan disappeared into it, not giving Jesse even a moment to catch up.

A bit nervous outside by his lonesome, Jesse followed in after, sure to shut the door and redo the chain.

A wave of smoke hit him the moment he stepped inside, and Jesse couldn't help but cough. He was never one for smoking-Casey and a couple of the guys had tried it out, sure, but Jesse had never felt the inclination to try it. Second-hand smoke wouldn't be real good for the horses, and Jesse didn't want to have to sacrifice time with Catolo just to slip in a cancer stick every couple of hours.

The music was louder inside. It was easy to find Duncan, however; beyond the door was a single hallway leading down into what appeared to be the living room. The real problem was actually getting _through_ the hallway.

Never in his eighteen years had Jesse Arlen Tyler ever felt embarrassed by a girl, but the way that the pink-haired one eyed him as he walked by, stopping mid-sentence in her conversation with a tall boy with glasses Jesse thought he'd just introduced the world into twenty new shades of red. The tall boy glared him down, not saying anything, as Jesse awkwardly excused himself and shuffled past, pressed onto the opposite wall for dear life.

The party spilled out past the hallway, however, and as soon as he was out of the hall he found himself in the center of a room filled with kids smoking and conversing, Duncan nowhere to be found. Jesse looked around, wondering for a brief second if that was how geeks felt at Jock parties. He didn't like the feeling at all.

"Are you coming or not?"

The tip of Duncan's green mohawk peaked out from the staircase, and Jesse saw the kid glaring at him as if he were slow. Embarrassed, Jesse followed behind him, his head ducked low as he past the other kids at the party, painfully aware of their eyes trailing on him. He didn't like this crowd; full of unnatural hair colors and tattoos and smoke clouds. He'd take beer pong and the football field any day over this.

To Jesse's relief, the party seemed to restrict itself to the first floor only, and none of the bedrooms seemed to be occupied. He wasn't real squeamish about that type of thing, usually, but he'd rather avoid anything to do with romance at the moment. That, and talking to this kid he'd only seen once or twice in his life while something like that was going on in the background would've been real awkward.

Duncan led him into one of the rooms, one painted black and covered in posters of bands Jesse had never heard of. It was nearly destroyed, too-the bed was full of cracks and splits, and the walls were covered in holes. Something that looked a little too much like blood for Jesse's comfort stained the floor at various small spots.

Did he just walk into a murder trap?

Duncan reached under his nearly destroyed bed, and Jesse was surprised when rather than a butcher knife or an axe he pulled out a black backpack instead. He dumped its contents out on the bed unceremoniously before tossing the backpack aside, and gestured to Jesse to come look.

Something about this Duncan kid, with the mohawk and piercings and tattoos, didn't really strike Jesse as the pharmacist type. So as to why his backpack was full of orange bottles and pill containers, Jesse didn't know.

"It's almost all supplied by Burton, so don't worry about pee tests or that shit," Duncan explained, bored. He'd crossed his arms and leaned up against the wall, watching Jesse. "So what are you looking for?"

Jesse eyed the pile for a moment longer, his eyes wide. He looked up at Duncan, mystified, confused. "I ain't lookin' for nothin'," he said finally.

"Bullshit," Duncan snapped, annoyed. "All you Jock kids want something. Top of the team." He eyed Jesse, waiting for a reaction. When he saw none, he continued.

"Some chick that doesn't pay attention to you even though you're _so good_ at holding balls."

Jesse flinched at that.

Bingo.

Duncan nodded, strolling over to Jesse and patting him on the back. "I know man, believe me. Chicks can be cold. Nothing like some bitch you give your all to just to have her spit it back in your face, right?" He asked.

Jesse sighed a little, looking away.

"I know man," Duncan agreed, struggling a little to keep his voice compassionate. How was he supposed to sound warm and caring if he didn't give a single fuck? "Look, you can trust me. Shit man, this stuff is coming from your _coach_. You trust him, don't you?"

Considering this for a moment, Jesse nodded.

"Yeah, I thought so. He just wants to look out for his guys, you know? I mean, I know you guys have a big game coming up in Spring. There's no better cure to heartache than victory."

Duncan nodded, as if agreeing with himself. "Just take one. Here, I'll tell you what. First one's free, okay? Then you just decide how it feels, and if it's alright, you come back here and talk to me."

He picked up a bottle and held it out to Jesse, knowing all he needed was for Jesse to take it. He'd come back. They always came back.

Hesitantly, Jesse reached out and took it, examining the label. It was long, something he couldn't pronounce. He stuck it in his pocket.

Duncan placed an arm around Jesse's shoulders, starting to walk him out of the room. "Alright man, you just try it out. Take it easy, alright? Head home. If you decide you wanna keep it up, come ask for me. But don't mention why you need me to anybody here, got it?" He said, looking at Jesse seriously. "These people have no idea how to keep their mouths shut."

Feeling more and more like a little kid, Jesse nodded.

"Alright, buddy," Duncan said, opening the door for him. "You go on and you get some rest."


	13. Priorities

_You'll find better love  
Strong as it ever was  
Deep as the river runs  
Warm as the morning sun  
Please remember me  
Please remember me…_

Jesse sighed as he lay on his bed in the dorm, staring down the pill bottle Duncan had given him. He was alone, the room void of life save for him and probably some rat that had managed to get in. Everybody else was out celebrating the New Year with friends, family, girlfriends…

But not Jesse. No, he felt sick to his stomach at the mere thought of going out to meet with the guys—he was _sure_ Ted and Mandy were there, and the last thing he wanted was to have to sit across with a smile plastered on his face as he stared down the girl he loved with the wrong man's arm around her shoulders.

 _There's no better cure to heartache than victory_.

But how the hell was one little bottle of pills gonna make him feel any better? Or winning a stupid game? He didn't care about those things, not when the girl he loved was with someone else. Even worse, when that someone else was one of his best friends.

Why would she pick Ted over him? He just couldn't understand it. Yeah, Ted was one of his best friends, but that just meant Jesse knew him better than most people. He knew how Ted had been hanging out with one of the girls on the cheer squad—some girl Casey had dated, Christine—in his free time without telling her. He knew Ted had scored third with some girl on Halloween at Jesse's birthday party. He knew how Ted was talking about scoring with Lola Lombardi or Alexis Monroe the minute Johnny Vincent decided which one he wanted off the rebound. Yet he still had Mandy.

He could've told her all of that, he realized, but he didn't regret not telling her. The last thing Jesse wanted was to hurt Mandy, especially on purpose. And if she was so willing to blindly choose _Ted Thompson_ over him, she obviously would've been hurt by the information.

Or maybe it was just something against him. He sat up, considering this. Could it be something wrong with him? Maybe Christy had gotten angry and told her about all the times he'd been with her. Or maybe she thought his accent was weird. Was it?

"Howdy there," he said aloud, listening closely to his voice. No, her thinking his accent was weird was impossible.

He dove his hand into the drawer of his nightstand, yanking out a small mirror Christy had once forgotten and he'd never summed up the will to go and get it back to her. He opened it and stared at his reflection, taking into account his messy chocolate brown hair and his tan skin. Nothing wrong there. He held the mirror closer, staring deep into his gray eyes. Nah, they were pretty nice, he thought, and retracted the mirror to stare at himself entirely. What was wrong with him?

Something in the reflection caught his eye, and he found himself staring down the orange pill bottle once again, the neon reflection of it distracting him from anything else in the room.

 _He wasn't a winner_.

Jesse felt as if someone had doused him with cold water. That was _exactly_ the problem Mandy saw in him. Ted was captain of the football team, the proclaimed most popular guy in the school, and credited for taking the football team to the finals last year. Sure, Jesse had his fair share of wins on the field, and girls fell at his feet, but as head cheerleader, Mandy obviously wanted some guy who would add to her image.

If that was what she wanted, he'd do it for her in a heartbeat. He loved her.

Rolling onto his side, Jesse began reaching for the pill bottle when the dorm's door slammed open and something was thrown at the opposite wall with a harsh crash, followed by the door slamming shut so hard the things on Jesse's nightstand shook. He froze, looking to the door, finding himself staring at Casey who was wiping at his eyes.

"Fucking no-good, drunken asshole…"

Jesse didn't know what else to do than just stare at Casey, a little surprised. He'd never seen Casey this upset, and the last thing he ever expected was for Casey to smash his phone on the wall. He called that thing the 'Babe Hotline'. Not that it rang too often, of course. Jesse used to like to mock Casey and tell him the few times that thing rang, it was chicks calling to ask what _Jesse's_ number was.

Casey saw him at that moment and instantly pulled his hand from his face. "Oh," he croaked, "sorry, dude."

Jesse nodded as Casey made his way to the bunk, turning for a moment to grab the chair from the desk to pull it up to Jesse's bottom bunk. As he did, Jesse grabbed the pill bottle and shoved it under his pillow, not ready to discuss it with Casey.

Pulling the chair over, Casey stopped suddenly and looked to Jesse. Something in him seemed to change his mind and he let go of the chair, instead making his way over to tower over Jesse's sitting form. "Have you just been in here all day?"

His voice was cold, and it did not go unnoticed by Jesse. Swallowing, he nodded slowly, uncomfortable as Casey's face grew more distorted with anger.

"You've just been in here all week, right? Is that why I never see you anywhere outside of class? And why I keep having to cover for you when Burton asks? 'Cause dude, I assumed you had the runs or something but clearly you've just been laying in here listening to your hillbilly bullshit."

That stung, and Jesse had no problem furrowing his eyebrows and glaring at Casey. "Tim McGraw ain't no hillbilly bullshit, Harris," he growled. Casey knew better than to start up with that anti-Texas crap. He knew Jesse hated it more than blue balls.

Casey shook his head, walking to the room's window and looking out it. Something outside pissed him off, apparently, because a second later he kicked a stray football as if it hadn't paid him back.

"Shut the fuck up. You've been in here all week just wallowing in this soap opera crap."

He stared at Jesse with an intense anger that Jesse had never seen. He stared back blankly, unsure of how to proceed. He'd never had Casey _this_ angry with him.

"So what if I have?" he replied, feeling dumb.

Shaking his head, Casey made his way back over to Jesse's bed and slammed his hand down on the boombox, shutting off the music.

"What the hell'd you do that fo-"

"We went to see Martinez Thursday," Casey cut him off, his eyes flaming by this point, "remember Martinez? Real nice guy, plays center? Injured his fucking spine last season? Can't walk anymore?"

Jesse stared back at him, his jaw clenched tight. He had no _idea_ that the guys had gone to see Gianfranco. It was a silent agreement—no, _law_ —that whenever they went to see Martinez, they went as a team. Help him remember that they were _all_ there for him.

Casey nodded, taking Jesse's silence as a signal that he did remember Martinez. "Yeah. See, he didn't say much, 'cause they put him back on pain pills 'cause he's having a lot of trouble, right? So he was pretty clocked out. His little sister thought it was real funny, y'know, most toddlers don't understand the concept of losing your whole ability to walk."

Casey shook his head, heading to the opposite side of the room and placing a hand on the wall. "But it's no worries, dude. I mean, Martinez doesn't jump around in a goddamn cheerleading uniform so you're not pent up on him, right? I mean, who cares if the guy needs his mom to put him on the toilet so he can take a shit? God _forbid_ anyone think that compares to the heartbreak that Mandy _fucking_ Wiles can cause."

"That ain't right, man," Jesse snapped back, angry, "I'm allowed to feel rotten if I damn please. Ain't my fault none of you popped in to tell me y'all were gonna go see him."

"Oh, right!" Casey screamed back, his voice borderline hysterical. "We should _definitely_ let you know when we're gonna see him so you can fit it into your _crying_ schedule! My mistake, sir! I know crying about a girl is _real_ important to you."

He sauntered up to Jesse, blue eyes close to Jesse's gray ones. "There are worse things out there than one of your _friend's_ girlfriends not wanting you to bone her," he hissed before turning on his heel and exiting the room with a furious slam of the door.

Jesse blinked a few times, surprised. He wanted to be angry at Casey, follow him out and call him a jackass, but something inside him _agreed_ with Casey. Confused he stood, reaching under his pillow and enclosing his fist around the bottle. He stepped out into the hallway but it was empty; Casey must have already left. Feeling dazed, Jesse stumbled into the bathroom and made his way to a sink, turning the water on and throwing some of it onto his face.

He looked up to the mirror and jumped a little. The dorm's dim light had done nothing to show him how he _really_ looked, which was like a bum. His eyes were dull and blunt, accented by faint dark circles around his eyes.

The pills rattled in his left hand and he eyed them, before looking himself in the mirror as if consulting.

 _There's no better cure to heartache than victory_.

He made up his mind. Opening the bottle, Jesse held a pill in his left hand as he cupped his right to collect some water. Throwing both into his mouth he swallowed, and glared at himself in the mirror, waiting for it to take effect.


End file.
